panama canal cek #47

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The Building of the Panama Canal

By Carson K

Heritage Minute

+The Panama Canal was built so

that ships wouldn’t have to travel around South America

to get to the west coast of the United States.

They could save a lot of time and money if they could somehow go through it.

+The Panama Canal was built so

that ships wouldn’t have to travel around South America

to get to the west coast of the United States.

They could save a lot of time and money if they could somehow go through it.

+Theodore Roosevelt, who was presidentfrom 1901 -1909 thought a way to solve this problem would be to build a canal at the narrowest point in Central America, which was Panama.

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PROBLEM Panama was part of the South American

country of Columbia. Columbia would not sell the land needed to build the canal to the United States.

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SOLUTION President Roosevelt helped Panama win its freedom from

Columbia, and the new leaders of Panama agreed to allow the United States to build the canal.

On November 17, 1903 the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty granted the US exclusive control over the canal zone.

+The Construction Of The Canal In the construction of the Panama Canal, more than

45,000 people worked for 10 years on the canal.

The length of the canal is 15 miles.

More than 4,000 wagons were used for the removal of the excavated material.

DIRT!!

+The Disease In The Building Of

The Canal

Since Panama is a hot, humid climate, mosquitos carrying Malaria and Yellow Fever killed 20,000 people during the building of the canal.

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The LocksA series of locks was used to make the canal more easily navigable. It was a way of raising and lowering ships as they passed through the canal.

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The SS Ancon was the first ship to travel through the Panama Canal on August 14, 1914. It carried a cargo of cement.

IT’S COMPLETED!

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The US owned the Panama Canal until 1999, when on December 31st it was given back to the people of Panama.

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The Building Of The Panama Canal

By Carson K

Heritage Minute